DRINKING WATER

GettyImages-2188554976_450_300 Why Planning Is The Hero Of AMI Deployment

Thorough planning, accurate data, and strong communication are the keys to successful AMI deployments, preventing costly disruptions and ensuring technology delivers long-term operational and customer service value.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • Degas Separator Selected For Wichita Aquifer Storage And Recovery Project

    In the 1990s, the City of Wichita, KS, developed a water supply plan that included creating a sustainable water supply through the year 2050. The key component of the plan is recharging the large aquifer that lies under the region with 100 MGD of water from the Little Arkansas River.

  • GAO Report Promotes New Way To Advance LSL Remediation

    In a report released just days before the U.S. EPA issued its final revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided insights that water utilities can use to achieve better protections for water customers in neighborhoods at higher risk of lead exposure. Here is a peek into its four recommendations, which the GAO anticipated updating in response to the EPA final LCR revisions.

  • Wastewater Treatment and Reuse - Lake Arrowhead, California

    In 2000, the district’s average water demand was 2.3 million gallons per day (MGD) (363 m3/hr) and was estimated to grow over 20% by 2030. Unfortunately, there was not a sufficient or permanent reliable source of supply to meet future demands.

  • Greek Municipality Of Naousa Secures Its Water Infrastructures With ABB Automation Solutions

    Discover what technologies were able to measure, monitor, and control for a city in northwest Greece, while also ensuring a safe and clean water supply. 

  • Connecting Water Technologies For A True Smart Network

    Having worked in partnership with municipalities and water utilities for 40 years, Ovarro understands the pressures to cut leakage has never been greater. Ovarro’s associate product line manager for leakage, Chris Moore, shares insights into how to become smarter in the detection of leaks

  • Applied Process Equipment Prepares Custom Engineered System For Sierra Lakes County

    Water supply from a mountain lake atop Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains was at risk of arsenic contamination. Here’s how Applied Process Equipment solved the problem.

  • Designing For Peaks And Valleys In Seasonal Communities With MBR Technology

    Wastewater flows in seasonal resorts are highly volatile. Learn how to stabilize biological treatment against sudden peak demands and low-flow off-seasons, ensuring continuous compliance and securing a high-quality water source for reuse.

  • How Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Can Protect Against Drought

    Learn how common wastewater technologies are being leveraged in decentralized systems and how they can open opportunities for innovation and better water management in the face of drought.

  • Accurate Metering For Every Water Consumer's Habits

    Utilities looking for greater billing efficiency and control over every drop of water consumed by their customers face a constant battle with non-revenue water loss, which can be compounded by different metering technologies and consumer behaviors. Using accurate, always-on, continuous-sampling meters to take full advantage of automated smart utility networks is a better way to improve decision-making and achieve accountability goals across any circumstances.

  • How Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning Will Underpin Asset Management Of The Future

    Aging infrastructure is by far the most recognized challenge for municipal water systems. In many places across the country, pipes and valves have been in the ground for more than 50 years. While this has led to a dramatic increase in failures, the typical municipality only has the budget to repair about 1% of its distribution system assets in any year. That’s where newer artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) solutions can play an outsized role.

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

The OPTISONIC 3400 is a 3-path ultrasonic inline flowmeter designed for a wide range of standard or more demanding process applications with homogeneous, non-viscous aqueous liquids as well as viscous fluids of up to over 1000 cSt. It is also the perfect choice for applications with cryogenic products (as low as -200°C / -328°F), media with extended temperature ranges (up to +250°C / +482°F) as well as low or extreme pressure ratings. The OPTISONIC 3400 offers a broad range of diameters – from DN25 / 1" for dosing purposes to DN3000 / 120" for water transportation pipelines.

The OPTIFLUX 5300 is an electromagnetic flowmeter (EMF) with a high-tech ceramic measuring tube for very aggressive and abrasive fluids, even with high solid content (up to 70%). The high-end EMF is particularly suited for process applications in the chemical processing industry and the minerals and mining sector. Due to its FDA and EC1935/2004 compliant sensor material, the OPTIFLUX 5300 can also be used for hygienic applications. With a measuring uncertainty of just ±0.15% of measured value (±1 mm/s) it is one of the most accurate electromagnetic flowmeters available in the market. That is why leading metrological institutes use the OPTIFLUX 5300 as their master meter.

The Aztec 600 Phosphate Analyzer AW636 has been designed specifically for the measurement of phosphate in both potable water and municipal wastewater effluents. It offers reliable and accurate on-line analysis of phosphate up to 50 ppm PO4.

SITRANS LT500 is the next evolution of digital level, flow, and pump controllers for radar and ultrasonic transmitters – or any 2-wire 4-20 mA device. It is the first choice for radar sensor measurements at 80 GHz and features single and dual point measurements, 6 relays, and Modbus RTU, HART, PROFIBUS DP, PROFIBUS PA, PROFINET.

Xylem’s offering of granular activated carbons includes a versatile group of adsorbents designed to meet your needs for air and water compliance, wastewater treatment, remediation, and water purification. As an exclusive supplier of AquaCarb® and VoCarb® carbons, among many others, we provide premium virgin, activated, and reactivated carbons sourced from high-quality bituminous coal, coconut shell, and anthracite coal, suitable for both liquid and vapor phase applications.

Our activated carbons undergo rigorous quality testing at a state-certified environmental and carbon testing laboratory. Our application experts can help you select the right carbon, enabling you to improve performance, extend time between exchanges, and minimize operating costs.

We maintain a large inventory of high-quality carbons for quick selection and delivery. We can deliver carbon to you in:

  • Supersacks
  • Paper bags
  • Fiber drums

The OPTIMASS 3400 is a cost-effective Coriolis mass flowmeter for accurate flow measurement of liquids and gases in a variety of demanding low flow and dosing applications (from 0.3 kg/h or 0.01 lb/min upwards). The OPTIMASS 3400 features Entrained Gas Management (EGMTM) for liquid applications, providing reliable readings even in the event of gas entrainment of up to 100%. In this way, the Coriolis meter enables continuous and uninterrupted measurement of volume flow and mass, density and temperature –  even at very difficult process conditions with 2-phase flow.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

Scientists are developing new motors that are tiny and soft. They run on things like light, magnetic effects or chemical solutions. And they can serve specific functions — including cleaning up pollution.

Lead poisoning water service lines are turning up around the globe at an alarming rate leaving millions angry. ePIPE's innovative technology creates a new pipe barrier inside the service lines eliminating water contact with the lead service lines.

Water utilities need reliable data to meet regulatory demands, manage operations, and deliver excellent customer service. Master Meter’s Allegro AMI and Allegro Mobile technologies offer smart, scalable solutions to support these needs. Allegro AMI provides hourly data on consumption, tampering, and leaks, automatically sent to the utility office.

Appearing on The Weather Channel's "Wake Up With Al" morning show, water expert Dan Theobald puts drinking water to the test by measuring total dissolved solids (TDS) in tap water samples from Brooklyn, Manhattan, and New Jersey, as well as bottled water samples.

The Eclipse i-Series model #9800i-GENESIS is the newest Intelligent Flushing & Monitoring Station Kupferle offers to maintain safe residual levels and remove DBPs from consumers' water. This permanently installed station incorporates a built-in chlorine analyzer to measure and record disinfectant residual levels based on a programmed sampling schedule.

ABOUT DRINKING WATER

In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:

  1. Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
  2. Drinking water treatment of source water
  3. Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers

Drinking Water Sources

Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater. 

Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.

Drinking Water Treatment

Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.

There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.

The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.

The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.

During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.

Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.

Drinking Water Distribution

Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.

A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.

Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.